Claus Kropp has recently posted some new photos of the cattle from the Auerrind project:
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| left: Maremmana x Sayaguesa, right: Maremmana x Watussi (© Claus Kropp) |
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| Maremmana x Watussi (© Claus Kropp) |
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| (Maremmana x Watussi) x (Sayaguesa x Chianina) (© Claus Kropp) |
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| Maremmana x Sayaguesa (©Claus Kropp) |
The Maremmana x Sayaguesa bull seems to develop formidable horns. I love his curly hair on the forehead, a typical trait of the European aurochs. The Maremmana x Watussi bull has large horns as well. On Facebook, Claus Kropp wrote that a pure Sayaguesa or Sayaguesa x Chianina might be crossbreeding options for this bull, and I completely agree with that. The young (Maremmana x Watussi) x (Sayaguesa x Chianina) bull should be old enough to have its final colour, apparently it inherited some colour dilutions. However, if it gets large and well-proportioned I would still consider him a useful individual (colour is easy to breed), especially if he gets good horns.
Have they abandoned the idea of breeding F1s with other F1s if the same parental breeds? I thought that was the original plan in order to stabilize the traits passed on beyond F2.
ReplyDeleteApparently, yes.
DeleteThat Maremmana Sayaguesa bull from the first photo looks great, colour, horns, head shape and the curly hair on its head and forehead as you said, it will be interesting to see him develop!
ReplyDeleteWatussi horns look all wrong, oversized and badly shaped. The bulls body shape looks terrible. It doesn’t look very agile.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see how an Auroch should move look up scrubber/feral cattle in the Northern Territory of Australia. 200 years of living wild has done much of the work already. Many display the coat colour and horn shape that you desire in an Auroch’s. I think some selective breeding of these cattle would quickly give a cattle breed that you want. Have a look at a documentary series called “outback ringers” on ABC iview